1588 "The Book of Trades" by Jost AmmanReproduction Deck by Il Meneghello

In a move to become a card manufacturing nation in their own right German card makers introduced the national suit signs of Hearts, Bells, Leaves, and Acorns, symbols of everyday country life. Their courts featured a King and 2 Knaves - an "over"(Ober) and an "under"(Unter). Here are 4 Ober cards from a modern pack using the German suit system.

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Though the national suits were accepted and used, German card makers continued to be extremely inventive with their suit signs. Unicorns, dogs, rabbits, apes, monkeys, lions, parrots and peacocks inhabited this paper world. Packs of cards used flowers, combs, fishes, crowns, bellows, frying pans, shields, knives, and the four suits which appear in the 1588 deck I show here, Books, Printer's Ink Pads, Wine Pots and Cups.

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This 52-card deck is based on one of the most significant works of Jost Amman, one of the more prolific wood cut artists of the German Renaissance. Many of the illustrations for this deck of cards appeared in books before the card deck was completed and produced. The courts are Kings on horseback, and the usual German Ober and Unter. On the 10s are women, perhaps borrowing from the 10s of Spanish packs which are sometimes female figures.

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The pips feature many illustrations of everyday life as associated with the suit of the card they are on. Placing detailed little pictures on the pip cards was common in German decks, often with a plant rising up in the background of the scene with the pips attached to it as though they were leaves or fruit of the plant.

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This particular deck is a facsimile deck using the uncoloured black prints from the woodcuts. It was made by Il Meneghello in 1985 as an edition of 2000. My deck is No1,721. The cards come in a book shaped cardboard sleeve that ties at the side with ribbon.

I think the only colour deck still in existence is missing one of the cards so they went without the colour for this facsimile. You can see what the brightly coloured deck looked like here:http://www.wopc.co.uk/germany/ammon.html.

Printed in 1988 by Coeur this is the second publicity deck for DSR, the naval shipping company of the port city Rostock. 52 cards and 3 jokers are all illustrated with images relating to ocean sailing. This deck is much more playful than the first one which was made in 1976 by the same artist. As with so many modern decks here are the French suits, also known as the international suits, rather than the traditional German suits.

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I love the scratchy ink drawing of this deck. The artist, Klaus Ensikat, even drew each end of every card rather than just flipping the image.

On the courts are a mixture of historic and mythological figures. Sir Francis Drake as the King of Spades and a the Flying Dutchman as the Jack of Clubs. Sorry for the weird quality change in image, the bulb in my scanner may be getting too old.

Here is a German deck that I own. It is a souvenir deck with pictures of places from around Germany on the number cards, traditional costumes on the face cards, and legendary characters on the 3 Jokers (such as the Pied Piper) The back is a double eagle with shiny gold background (why can't today's decks with "metallic inks" get a gold this shiny? It's really shiny in person.) The deck also has gold edges on the corners and comes with a 188 page booklet that describes every card in the deck in 3 different languages! I'm not sure of the year, but it looks at least a couple decades old. The black box it comes in is on the upper rt.

This is the first of Two sets i`ve recently purchased. A Couer deck called "Essay" from 1967 and designs by Hannelore Heise .The set comes in a 2 deck clear plastic box,with both decks being identical apart from the colours of the geometric patterns on the back .one is Green,blue and black the other is green,orange and black. Being new to collecting i would like your opinions etc about this deck

The Second Coeur deck again comes in a 2 deck clear plastic box,again the only difference between decks are the colours on the back. I have no information about this deck sorry,any info would be grateful thanks.First up the backs and jokers

Cool decks. I especially like the big heads deck with the op-art back. I'll look around a bit and see if I can find anything on it. Won't be right away though since life's a little busy right now.

Having the title, artist, maker and date for the first one is very good. Sometimes there's nothing at all I can find on a deck I have, and it's a mystery until I chance upon some sideways info on the web.

Thanks for looking at the decks Dazzleguts, i will keep looking for more information myself as well.I bought both packs for £5 (about $12) on e-bay .The reason for buying the decks as opposed to the modern Bicycle decks i have is I liked the sixties style of the first deck also the backs stood out to me (Bold and simple).

I don't know if it usually comes with a box but the deck I bought didn't have one. I made this 2 part slide box to contain the cards.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, the Poker Flat Recordings studio has been one of Europe's most prominent tech house labels for much of the past 15 years. Founded in 1998 by Steve Bug, the Poker Flat sound has gone through several mutations over the years, but the studio remains largely grounded in functional and melody-heavy house.

The cards were made in 2008 for the tenth anniversary of Poker Flat. They feature "inspired deadly chic" illustrations by artists Nils Zimmermann & Chris-toph Babbel.

This deck is made up of 100% plastic, casino quality poker cards and was made in China. They seem a little thinner than the other plastic decks I have handled, and they have a pebbled surface for glide.

The backs of the cards feature a repeating Poker Flat logo, and the way the pattern ends makes this a one-way back.

These cards are still available on the Poker Flat Recordings web site, last I looked.

Two decks from Germany both using the standard Berlin Pattern used since 1931. The first a Skat deck by Fx Schmid i can`t find any info on this deck but i think is very new.The deck didn`t come with jokers (was wrapped when i got deck).

As with all Skat decks this has only 32 card (Number 7 upwards including the ace)and this comes in a clear plastic box.The next deck was amongst others in a joblot on e-bay,it didn`t come with a tuck (Rubber band round cards to keep them together)so will probably get a plastic box or make a tuck for them.

Jokers and Back

Spades and Hearts

This deck was produced by the ASS company and unlike the Skat deck is a complete deck . Also can`t find any info except whats on the cards. It`s likely the cards date from before 1996 thats when the Leinfelden factory closed down and production moved to Steinenbronn in 1997(Judging by the 7 of diamonds).